The present invention relates to food products containing propolis.
Propolis is a naturally occurring substance, which has long been used as a folk medicine, and is produced by honeybees. Propolis contains resin-like materials collected from various plants and glandular secretions of bees. Containing resins, beewax, essential oils, pollens, and flavonoids, propolis has been found to exhibit a variety of pharmacological effects on the human body. Among such effects are anti-microbial effects, anti-viral effects, anti-oxidative effects, anti-inflammetory effects, antitumor effects, local anasthetic effects, analgestic effects, and immuno-stimulating effects.
Of these effects, anti-oxidative effects, anti-inflammetory effects, analgestic effects, anti-viral effects, immuno-stimulating effects, antitumor effects are attributable to flavonoids present in propolis.
Propolis extracts containing flavonoids as active ingredients show high fluidity. Such extracts can be obtained by extracting crude propolis with alcohol or water. Alcohol extraction is preferred in that flavonoids are efficiently extracted and contamination with microorganisms is minimized.
One drawback of such propolis products is that the high fluidity of the product considerably shortens the time that propolis remains in human gastrointestinal (GI) tracts, leading to less absorption of propolis active ingredients through the GI tracts. Another problem with the alcohol-extracted propolis products is that they have a strong odor and are particularly irritating to mucous membranes due to their acrid, pungent taste characteristics. Therefore, such products are difficult to ingest.